Love learning new things while also reading a page-turning historical thriller? Check out David Morrell’s Murder as a Fine Art. Set in Victorian England, Morrell’s “hero” is the essayist Thomas De Quincey, author of Confessions of an Opium Eater.

A heinous crime is committed in 1854, England. The gruesome methods of the crime are lifted directly from a De Quincey essay, “On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts.” As it happens, De Quincey and his daughter Emily were in England at the time of the murder. He suddenly becomes a prime suspect. With the help of a couple of Scotland Yard detectives, it will be up to De Quincey and Emily to prove his innocence and find the killer.

De Quincey is a fascinating historical figure. He wrote about the inner psyche decades before Sigmund Freud and was surrounded by artistic friends such as William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Murder as a Fine Art is one part novel and one part history lesson. Scotland Yard was still relatively new, and investigative techniques were still rather primitive. Morrell gives his readers a real sense of Victorian England, with its straight-laced exterior hiding a dark underbelly of vice.

Anguish over the loss of a child is life altering and permanent. Just suppose, years later, a stranger tells you that your child may still be alive. That unimaginable scenario greets Geniver (Gen) Loxley in Sophie McKenzie’s tightly wound new thriller Close My Eyes, where the still grieving mother's encounter with an unexpected visitor leads to an unthinkable possibility.

After eight long years, life is standing still for the childless Gen. Despite a comfortable, albeit boring, life with her ambitious and devoted husband Art, the former writer and part-time teacher can't seem to move past the death of her stillborn daughter, Beth. When Gen's husband suggests they keep trying for another child his sullen wife resists. Then one day out of the blue, a woman appears at their door with an incredible accusation: the Loxley baby was born alive and healthy. For the fragile Gen, it is about as cruel a joke as possible. Her emotional unraveling worries her husband and her best friend, both of whom dismiss outright the stranger's claims. When one coincidence too many does not add up, Gen plummets into a wave of confusion and doubt. What really did happen in the operating room years earlier? It is true; she never saw her dead daughter. As she sets out to revisit the past she discovers an equally devastating reality may await her.

The London-born McKenzie, whose previous works included children and teen novels published in the United Kingdom, has crafted a roller coaster plot with flawed characters and a disturbing narrative. Fans of last summer's mega-hit Gone Girl will be hooked by another enticing and twisty psychological thriller that visits a dark place with unsettling consequences. It is not likely to disappoint.

Charlie Davis is a political reporter for the Los Angeles Times, but becomes an investigator in search of his wife when she goes missing. Out of Range by Hank Steinberg is an action-packed adventure that leads Charlie and readers to Uzbekistan, the country where Charlie and his wife Julie fell in love. Six years ago, the young couple lived happily in Uzbekistan where he worked as a reporter and they were awaiting the birth of their first child. But tragedy soon struck as they were caught up in a massacre which wounded them both and took the life of their friends’ young son. Following that brush with death, Charlie resolved to keep his family safe. They returned to the security of the States and Charlie began his staid job at the Times.

Fast forward six years and the danger has resurfaced. While on a trip to Disneyland with their two children, Julie is forced from her car and vanishes. Following Julie’s kidnapping, Charlie becomes the police’s primary focus. Since the cops aren’t on the right trail, Charlie is determined to find out who took his wife. While investigating Julie’s days leading up to the disappearance, he finds clues indicating that perhaps Julie wasn’t the happy stay-at-home mom he thought she was. She’s been hiding secrets which now threaten her entire family. All roads lead Charlie back to Uzbekistan, and while attempting to rescue his wife, he must thwart a terrorist plot, outsmart his own kidnappers, and deal with MI6.

This debut thriller is from the creator of the television series Without a Trace. Steinberg illustrates the dangerous world of international espionage in a fast-paced tale that is full of twists and turns with an intriguing cast of characters.

Elizabeth L. Silver’s debut novel The Execution of Noa P. Singleton is the kind of book that leaves the reader thinking about it long after finishing the last page. As the story begins, Noa is on death row awaiting X-Day, the day of her execution, when Marlene Dixon, the mother of her victim Sarah, approaches her. Marlene is a prominent Philadelphia attorney who tells Noa that she has changed her stance on the death penalty. Marlene says that she has formed a new nonprofit organization called Mothers Against Death, and she offers to petition for clemency on Noa’s behalf. What she really wants is for Noa to explain why she shot Sarah. During her trial and sentencing, Noa did not speak to defend herself. She did not offer any explanation for Sarah’s death.

The story is told through narratives written by Noa as X-Day approaches and letters that Marlene writes to Sarah at the same time. The truth is a murky thing that Silver slowly reveals over the course of the novel. The idea that both guilt and innocence exist on a spectrum is at the heart of the story. Neither of the women is what she seems to be in the beginning, and both share the burden of guilt to some degree. As Noa’s execution draws near, the reader realizes the complexity of the situation and must consider the difference between moral guilt and legal guilt. The Execution of Noa P. Singleton is a complex, character-driven psychological thriller that will yield heated discussions at your next book club meeting.

What happens when a girl who shouldn’t have survived a violent attack hunts a killer who shouldn’t be able to exist? This is the story at the center of the hypnotic web that South African author Lauren Beukes creates in her new thriller The Shining Girls. In the 1930s, serial killer Harper Curtis found something magical that has made his murders almost unsolvable. The front door of his house opens onto different times, allowing him to travel back and forth through time to find his girls. He finds himself drawn to some girls because they shine; their lives are full of promise. He murders the girls, leaving trophies from his kills in other times at the grisly murder scenes. He is confident that he’ll never be found, so he begins to go back to visit his girls when they are children, years before he kills them.

Kirby Mazrachi is a survivor. In 1989, she was attacked by a serial killer and left for dead. She is determined to find answers. She becomes an intern at the Chicago Sun-Times and works with Dan Velasquez, a former homicide reporter who wrote about her attack. She begins to find answers, but Kirby quickly realizes that the more she learns, the more impossible it all seems. Tension builds as readers realize that Kirby and Harper are on a collision course to meet again. Beukes has created a chilling, genre-bending thriller that may ruin the childhood toy My Little Pony for you forever. For a sneak peak at the novel, watch this book trailer that will make you sleep with the lights on tonight!

Bestselling political thriller author Vince Flynn passed away today at age 47, a victim of prostate cancer. Flynn was known as the creator of the popular character Mitch Rapp, a counter-terrorism operative who works for the CIA.

A native of Minnesota, Flynn began his career working for Kraft Foods, as a sales and marketing specialist. He aspired to be an aviator with the Marines, but was medically disqualified from officer candidate school. A self-imposed extreme program of reading everything he could get his hands on and writing daily helped him to overcome some of his difficulties with dyslexia. His love of espionage thrillers led him to try his hand at writing them.

He has published fourteen such books, creating a loyal fan following and becoming a fixture on The New York Times Bestsellers List. His conservative political views also made him a popular guest on the Glenn Beck program on Fox News. Flynn also served as a consultant on the fifth season of the television series 24. You can follow Mitch Rapp from the beginning in his first appearance on the page in Transfer of Power. His latest adventure unfolds in The Last Man, where Rapp must head to Afghanistan to track down a CIA agent who has gone missing. Readers can look forward to yet another Rapp thriller this fall; Flynn’s The Survivor is set to be released on October 8.

The literary world has never lacked for crime-solving heroines who cleverly and genteelly solve all manner of conundrum. There is, however, a new breed of women in town and they are also cracking cases but in a decidedly angry, messy, and bloody way. Meet Vanessa Michael Munroe in The Doll by Taylor Stevens, and Frieda Klein in Tuesday’s Gone by Nicci French.

Raised in Africa by her American missionary parents, Munroe is tough. She likes to go on missions disguised as a man, has an amazing facility for languages, relishes physical combat, and harbors a rage which drives her to tackle the seamy international underworld of human trafficking. In The Doll, she is working for the independent security firm Capstone when she is abducted by minions of the creepy Doll Man. She must match wits with him in order to save herself and the next “doll.” Author Stevens was raised in the Children of God cult, infamous for its alleged sexual practices involving the children in the group’s care. This is her third book in the fast-paced Munroe series.

British psychotherapist Frieda Klein finds herself working with the police once again in Tuesday’s Gone. Called in to analyze both a bizarre crime scene and the nearly catatonic probable perpetrator of the murder, Klein believes the solution isn’t as easy and obvious as the chief of police would like it to be and is drawn into the investigation. French (actually a husband/wife writing duo) is skilled at creating complex psychological thrillers, and as Klein works to untangle the clues and prove one suspect innocent, she can’t shake the feeling that she is being watched and manipulated. Look for Klein to make repeat appearances in this days-of-the-week series which began with Blue Monday.

Take one American working as the head of security at the Paris embassy, add one psychologically disturbed killer suffering from a traumatic past life and throw in a murder in the historic Père Lachaise cemetery, close to the final resting spot of Jim Morrison, and you will find yourself in the middle of The Crypt Thief by Mark Pryor, a cracking good thriller featuring Hugo Marston. Hugo is an accomplished profiler, so when an American tourist is shot while apparently sightseeing in the cemetery, he is immediately notified. The victim turns out to be the son of a United States senator. When the woman he was with is identified as a Pakistani traveling on a false passport, red flags are raised and the embassy begins to fear the work of terrorists. Hugo is not convinced. The crime itself does not strike him as being the work of a professional assassin. The type of weapon, the location of the wounds on the body, and the apparent removal of a tattoo on the woman’s arm all point to someone with a more personal interest in the victims. The senator doesn’t hold with this theory and wants to not only release information to the press that may cause a city wide panic, but also begin a manhunt for the female victim’s traveling companion who may have links to terrorist groups. Hugo must work quickly to solve the crime before all hell breaks loose.

The Crypt Thief is the second in the Hugo Marston series that started with The Bookseller. Pryor creates an interesting thriller featuring a demented killer with added elements of investigation that will appeal to mystery lovers. He also includes interesting tidbits about the city of Paris, so readers who appreciate good detail about the locale will find plenty to enjoy.

Jennifer McMahon’s latest novel, The One I Left Behind, begins in 1985. Reggie is thirteen years old and a murderer is terrorizing her hometown of Brighton Falls, Connecticut. The serial killer, nicknamed Neptune by the local police and press, is kidnapping and murdering women, leaving their bodies to be found by local police days later. The fourth and final victim is Reggie’s mother Vera. Unlike the other three women, Vera’s body is never found. For years the case is left unsolved, leaving Reggie with no closure.

Twenty five years later in 2010, a woman is found at a homeless shelter and identified as Vera. Vera’s reappearance forces Reggie to face emotions she hasn’t dealt with in years. At the same time, it reopens the unsolved Neptune murder cases, and creates new questions—why was Vera allowed to live, and where has she been all these years? Reggie brings her ailing mother back to their hometown to stay somewhere familiar in hopes that it will make her more comfortable. As the residents of Brighton Falls learn that Vera is alive and in town, the desire to learn the identity of Neptune is renewed. When another woman is kidnapped, Reggie realizes that Neptune has returned and takes matters into her own hands, investigating the murders and new disappearance on her own.

Switching back and forth between Reggie’s childhood, the present, and excerpts from a book about the Neptune serial killer, The One I Left Behind gives readers multiple sides to this mystery, taking readers along for Reggie’s search for the truth about her mother’s disappearance. The One I Left Behind is a thrilling mystery that readers won’t be able to put down.

The disappearance of a child is a parent’s worst nightmare. Amity Gaige’s latest book, Schroder, is a kidnapping tale with a twist: it’s told from the perspective of the kidnapper, who is also the child’s father. Eric Kennedy is writing to his estranged wife from prison, explaining why he abducted their daughter Meadow and chronicling the time he spent on the run with her. His story becomes a broader reflection of his life and his misguided decisions and deceptions.

When Eric feels he’s being unfairly treated in divorce proceedings, he drives off with his daughter during one of his custody visits. Through the course of the story, the reader learns the history of Eric, who was born Erik Schroder in East Berlin. He and his father emigrated to the United States under murky circumstances, and Erik originally used the name Eric Kennedy to gain admission to a summer camp. The name sticks, staying with him into adulthood, although modern technology and identity tracking make it increasingly difficult for him to maintain a false persona. Gaige does an excellent job building two contrasting main characters: Meadow is an incredibly perceptive yet wholly innocent six-year-old, while Eric is a deeply flawed adult who puts his daughter’s safety at risk multiple times. There is a train wreck feel to the story as he makes one poor decision after another.

Gaige drew inspiration for this story from the famous case of Clark Rockefeller, whose multiple false identities were discovered after he kidnapped his daughter in 2008. The Man in the Rockefeller Suit by Mark Seal is an account of that story. In Schroder, Gaige manages to show that Eric is not a terrible person, just a “bad choicer”, as she refers to him in an interview with NPR.